VA Birders,
Joanna Taylor, Danny Crookston, and I headed down to Tidewater, the CBBT,
and the Eastern Shore on Tuesday, March 15, and returned home on Thursday,
March 17. Because Danny had not seen a Painted Bunting in VA, we made our
first
stop in Chesapeake, arriving at Lambert Trail about 3:15 pm on Tuesday in
hopes of finding the bunting at the feeders for her. Just before 3:45 pm,
Joanna
happened to look across the street and spotted the male Painted Bunting,
which flew into a tree in the side yard of the house there. The bird sat on a
branch facing us, then turned around and showed us its back before flying off
behind the house again. We then left and drove to the CBBT.
Highlights on the CBBT islands Tuesday afternoon were several Northern
Gannets and Great Cormorants, all 3 scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, and a few
Purple
Sandpipers. We also saw 3 Harbor Seals, 2 on Island #3 and 1 on #4. We
finished the afternoon at the Ramp Road Pond at Eastern Shore of VA NWR, where
we
found the Eurasian Wigeon about 6:00 pm, just before it got too dark to see
him. We also had a Clapper Rail walk across the road there. We spent 2 nights
at the Best Western Sunset Beach on the southern tip of the Eastern Shore so
we could spend a full day birding on the shore.
On Wednesday, March 16, we began our day at the Ramp Road Pond, where we
saw the Eurasian Wigeon again, but in better light. We also saw our first
Ospreys of the year at the refuge. Next we headed north on Rt. 600, hoping to
find the Eurasian Collared-Doves. We did not find them then or later, but we
did see several Savannah Sparrows along the road. At Kiptopeke State Park, we
found lots of Red-throated Loons, including 5 sitting in a group at close
range, and many Common Loons as well. We also saw our first Brown Pelicans, as
well as Horned Grebes and more gannets there. From Kiptopeke, we drove up to
Willis Wharf, arriving just before high tide. We found a large group of
shorebirds, including 100 or more Marbled Godwits, many Willets and Dunlin, and
a few
Short-billed Dowitchers there. We continued north to Quinby, where we found 3
Laughing Gulls among the group of gulls at the boat dock--another first for
the year and the only ones we saw on the trip. Joanna spotted 3 Common
Mergansers--1 male and 2 females--in the marsh just outside of town, which I
thought
were notable because I have seldom if ever seen Common Mergansers on previous
trips to the Eastern Shore.
After lunch at the Trawler Restaurant in Exmore, we headed back south to
Cape Charles, where we found a flock of Sanderlings on the beach and a
Forster's Tern. We also saw a group of shorebirds on a jetty which included
6-8
Purple Sandpipers among the Ruddy Turnstones and a few Dunlin. I suspect this
may
be the only time I have seen Purple Sandpipers in the area that were not on
the CBBT. We found the pond on Washington Street and saw several Greater
Yellowlegs there, and we discovered another pond at the other end of town, at a
golf course, where we saw our only Ring-necked Duck and Blue- and Green-winged
Teal of the trip. On Harmony Road, somewhere between Cape Charles and
Kiptopeke, off of one of the cross streets between Rts. 13 and 600, we found a
couple
of Pine Warblers. We also saw a Tufted Titmouse, which we think is uncommon on
the shore. We ended the day with another stop at Kiptopeke, where this time
we found the Peregrine Falcon on the old steel ship hulks out in the bay.
In spite of weather reports to the contrary, we had good weather with
calm seas both Tuesday and Wednesday, with cloudy skies but no more than 2
flakes
of snow on the second day. Thursday morning, however, we encountered strong
winds, and a mix of snow, sleet, and rain, which I hoped would be good weather
for finding sea ducks. It was. On Island #4, we found the 5 Harlequin Ducks
(1 adult male and 4 females, altho we wondered if at least 1 of them could
have been an immature male), which had previously eluded us, all 3 scoters,
including 4 White-winged Scoters, and 3 Long-tailed Ducks, all close to shore,
as
well as many more gannets than before. We also saw 2 seals at Island #3 and
did our good deed for the day when we showed them to a CBBT police officer who
stopped to check us. (The policeman told us he had heard about the seals, but
he hadn't seen them this year. So we pointed out a seal in the water to him
and I loaned him my bins to see it better.)
Note: All areas we visited on the Eastern Shore are in Northampton County,
except for Quinby, which is in Accomack County.
On the way home, we stopped briefly at George Washington's Birthplace
National Monument in Westmoreland County, where we saw over 100 Tundra Swans
and
at least 3 Mute Swans, as well as our only Bald Eagles of the trip. Finally,
as we were driving west on Rt. 3 in King George County, Joanna spotted Wild
Turkeys in a field on the right side of the highway. We pulled off on a nearby
road and watched the tom turkey putting on a show and displaying for his harem
of 7 hens! Our total bird list for the trip was about 90 species.
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
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